James and I are known as the terrible two in our family. Our grandpa Weasley says we are the biggest rascals since the twins. He's talking about my dad and his brother Fred. Fred died in the war against Voldemort.
I knew dad was a twin and that his brother had died. I knew I was named for his brother and everyone called me Freddy because saying Fred made them all look like they were about to cry.
I knew that Dad and his brother got in to a lot of trouble when they were younger, pulling pranks and stuff. I knew that Dad and Fred had started WWW instead of finishing school.
I didn't know everything my family had done during the war. I didn't know the sacrifices they all had made until I went to Hogwarts.
My first year Teddy, (Teddy Lupin, my uncle Harry's god-son), sat me down and told me a bunch about our family when I first got to school. I sent an owl to my mum right away asking her why no one had ever told us kids that our folks and grand folks were heroes.
She showed up the next day and we went for a long walk around the lake. She explained how hard it was for the family to talk about what had happened.
I started reading everything I could get my hands on about the war and our family then. My dad and Fred were famous in the school. The pranks they had pulled were legendary! There still is a swamp in the castle that they had created.
When my best mate and cousin James Potter came to school the next year we decided that we were going to be just as infamous as my dad and his brother. Good thing we both learn quick because the years we spent at school were equally divided between studying and mischief. Oh and a lot of quidditch thrown in.
Quidditch, the threat of being banned from playing, and the notorious bat bogey hex all the Weasley-Potter females know, were the only things that kept us in check.
Dominique, my part Vela cousin, and her older sister Victoire were very good at the hex my first year. That and the fact that I was missing James kept me from getting in to too much trouble. The next year James started and we had a blast. Sure if Victoire caught wind of a prank pulled on one of the family we had to avoid her or the bats would fly!
The only thing that would make James and I act seriously was if someone threatened our family or friends. One of the things you learned by watching the old folks in our family was that you stand up for what is right and you protect each other.
There were still gits in school who's families wanted a world made in the image of Voldemort's ideal. They would sneak around trying to best a Potter or Weasley. Or they would pick on the weaker, younger students.
Catching them in the act and using a really funny hex on them was always a highlight of our week. Of course we HAD to pick on our younger siblings. My sister was the most annoying tattle-tell every born. Any time I could slip in a potion or hex on her I was all for it, until she got better at defensive spells than I was that is.
James had two younger siblings. Lily was the youngest and she was all right. Albus was his younger brother and a right pain in the arse! He was born smart and with unusually strong magic. He almost always had a book with him. He liked to spout off about this and that, like we all cared about the root word of a spell or how many times a dragon beats it's wings per minute!
Albus best mates were our cousins Rose and Louis and Scorpios Malfoy. We did our best to trick them every time we could. But we also looked out for them. Albus and James were a target of every dim-witted inbreed that wanted the old ways returned. See their dad was Harry Potter. You know "The boy who lived, twice", "The savior of the wizarding world".
Albus, Rose, Louis and Scorpios were always too busy with their heads stuck in books to notice the danger they were in until they had been at school a couple of years.
Yeah, sure we did lock them in a few class rooms and broom closets, and we did, on a regular basis, transfigure their things in to creepy crawly things and we did spike their food with stuff to make them turn colors and throw up neat stuff but we also loved them.
We watched them learn to fight back, not only fight back at us but the inbreed gits too. I like to think all that trying to stay away from our pranks made them the outstanding witch and wizards they turned out to be.